A "feral child" is one who spent a significant part of early childhood isolated from civilization, often raised by wild animals. A consistent theme of these stories is that the foundlings had no language or social skills, which are normally learned early in life, and...
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Video Game Addiction and Brain Damage
My doctor asked me if I drink alcohol. I told her I usually have a glass of red wine with dinner and another glass later. She said, "That's probably OK. The research says red wine has a number of health benefits. Men can drink up to two glasses of red wine each day,...
Teens Can Choose to Make Their Brains Smarter – The Stakes Are High
One of the underlying themes of my writing is that parents of teens need to be realistic. But being realistic doesn't necessarily imply some kind of worst-case scenario. Because realistically, lots of really wonderful things can happen during adolescence. For example,...
The Teen Brain – 3 Big Mistakes Adults Make
About the teen brain, I have some good news and some bad news. First, the good news. Nearly every adult I talk to these days has heard about the teen brain. Fifteen years ago, this was not the case. At the turn of the century, the fact that the prefrontal cortex (PFC)...
Why Teens Are Vulnerable to Peer Pressure
What is self-esteem, anyway? Why is it important to a growing child? Why does it turn out to be a tough issue? What can parents do to nurture stronger self-esteem? Physically, I was a late-bloomer. When I was a freshman in high school, I was the shortest boy in my...
Teen Smartphones and Social Networking – Buyer Beware
Today, most phone calls are made using wireless smartphones, relayed by Wi-Fi devices in your home or distant radio towers. What we used to call telephones are now called landlines, and these are steadily disappearing. The smartphone technology that people carry in...
What Every Parent Needs to Know about the Brain – a Fun Introduction
You see those beautiful eyes and that heart-melting smile. What you don't see (and probably rarely think about) is what's going on in your child's brain, which is steadily growing, preparing itself for the challenges of adult life, and will continue to do so until...
To Kill or Not to Kill – That Is the Question
If you read news articles, you know that it's not uncommon to read about murder. I learn about such incidents all too often; I reflect on the loss of life, how the killer's life will be horribly changed forever, and whether the tragic event could have been prevented....
Teens Abusing OTC Cough Medicine Can Cause Permanent Brain Damage
Doctors routinely warn women to avoid smoking and using alcohol or drugs during pregnancy. Why? Because the unborn child’s body and brain are slowly developing, and the mother’s blood provides materials to the placenta, which nurtures the growing fetus. If the mother...
Erratic Teen Behavior – It’s Not a ‘Phase’ They Outgrow
Since the 1990’s, when Dr. Jay Giedd and his colleagues at the National Institute for Mental Health published their pioneering research about adolescent brain development, more than a dozen authors with different backgrounds have written about “the teen brain.” For...